The ethology is the field of zoological science. Its foundation was laid at the beginning of the 20th century when the European zoologists began to study animals in their native habitat. In detail and methodically the ethology is close to comparative psychology.
The first ethology set before themselves very simple purpose - studying behavioural adaptation at different types. The majority of these researches were concentrated only on external functionality of behavior, and revealed similarities and differences in behavior of animal different types of one family. After World War II in ethology there were changes. Ethology began to study animals on the basis of physiological aspects of behavior, trying to offer evolutionary explanations to results the researches.
Modern ethology carry out a wide range of researches on many directions – behavioural models, homologous behavior, an imprinting, individual and interpersonal behavior within one look, ontogenesis and phylogeny of separate patterns of behavior, cognitive and comparative ethology.
There is a basic procedure which is used in a modern ethological research. Each scientific project, regardless of specific accessory of the object of study, begins with creation etogramm. Etogramma represents the list of characteristic behavioural patterns of a concrete look, the list of poses, a mimicry and gestures if it is about mammals.
On a basis etogramm the scientist-etolog develops theories about behavior, makes a number of hypotheses explaining any given pattern of behavior, its origin, appointment and development, specific modifications within one sort or family. The researcher also tries to reveal and explain how a certain way of behavior helps survival of a look how increases its competitive capacity during natural selection.
After a stage of observation, collecting primary data and promotion of hypotheses of ethology make a series of the experiments designed to confirm or refute their theories, or to help to make the decision concerning carrying out additional researches.
One of key concepts of ethology is the homologous behavior. It is about the similar patterns of behavior found in the closely related types which occurred from the general ancestor. The homologous or species-specific behavior helps etologa to explain education and the direction of evolutionary development of the concrete sequence of actions in separate types.
A number of experts-etologov specializes in cognitive and comparative ethology. The cognitive ethology is defined as cross-disciplinary area of researches of classical ethology and comparative psychology. Cognitive ethology study informative processes which cause behavior of animals. Cognitive etologa managed to prove that primacies, like people, have rational thinking, are capable to plan own behavior and to expect a certain behavior from other representatives of the look.